Baklava

 

Baklava or some people pronounce baklawa is one of the traditional pastries from Mediterranean and Mid-East area. If you go to Greek or Palestinian Restaurant, it is not complete without eating Baklava as a dessert. Now we can find Baklava easily in everywhere including in the USA. We can also order from internet, but I still love homemade Baklava. I learned how to make Baklava from my neighbor when I lived in Tara Apartment, Fayetteville, Arkansas last year. She is from Yemen. She is very expert in making Baklava. She showed me how to make Baklava.

In general, there are four parts in Baklava: filling, syrups, butter and the Phyllo dough (finally, I found that phyllo is Greek word means layer).  Here are all ingredients that we need to use:

·         The syrup:

-         2 cups of sugar

-         1 cup of water

-         1 Tablespoon of lemon juice

-         1 teaspoon of vanilla

·         The filling:

-         2 cups of mixed ground nuts (almond, walnut, and pistachios)

-         1 teaspoon of ground cinnamon

-         1/3 teaspoon ground clove

-         3 Tablespoons of brown sugar

·          I box of Phyllo dough (thin layer bread dough).

·         1 cup of melted unsalted butter and it has to be butter, we do not have substitute for this.

In the first time, if we want to make mixed groundnuts by ourselves, we can do this step first. We grind all the nuts and mix together with the ground cinnamon, ground cloves, and brown sugar. The simple way, you can just buy groundnuts from groceries store and mix them with the ground cinnamon, ground cloves, and brown sugar. Base on my experiences, the nuts that we grind by ourselves, it gives better taste than groundnuts from groceries store.

After we prepare the filling, I suggest making the syrup first, so it has time to cool.  We combine sugar, water, and lemon juice in a saucepan, boil over medium heat for about 8 to 10 minutes, and add the vanilla in the last minute to make the vanilla aroma has not gone.  We set the syrup aside and use it later

During cooling the syrup, we make the main part.  We have to thaw the Phyllo dough before we start. We can find Phyllo dough at Groceries Store, in frozen dough section. When we are working with Phyllo dough, we always have to cover sheets that are not being used with a wet towel. This is important to keep the fragile dough from drying out. As a baking pan, we can use a rectangular pan, preferably a 14 x 10 inches size, brush the bottom of the pan with the melted butter, lay a sheet of the Phyllo dough in the bottom of the pan and brush it with melted butter.  We have to fold it over if necessary to fit in the pan. We do this until we have about 10-12 layers. Then we put a layer of the filling on top of the sheet of Phyllo dough, cover with other sheet of Phyllo dough, paint that with butter, and continue in this manner until you have used all of your filling.  It is better we have equal amount of the Phyllo dough in the top as you used for the bottom and we have to make sure each sheet is brushed with butter.

When we finish putting the Phyllo dough, and the filling, we cut into diamond shapes with a sharp knife. The next step, we bake at 350 degree Fahrenheit for about an hour in the oven, or until evenly browned on top, like a nice golden color.  In the last step, we have to pour cooled syrup that we made in the beginning over hot baked pastry and be ready to serve.

We can serve each individual Baklava, put on a cup cake cup and be ready to eat. We can choose and match the cup cake with the occasion. It makes a beautiful display. We can modify with adding another ingredients because in the market there are many variation of Baklava now, we can make our own Baklava recipe. If you never make it, try this simple recipe and I guarantee it become your favorite pastry.